Titanomachia
by dajiangyou
Summary: The nations are stripped of their status by a Scratch, and Alfred is the only one who remembers that he was a nation. Determined to discover how this happened, Alfred tries to get his friends and family to remember, and to unveil the culprit. In Progress.
1. Chapter 1

That was the last night he was going to spend drinking. Alone. Until 3 AM. Alfred rolled groggily over to the edge of his bed, careful to not fall off. He bruised easier these days. Got wasted easier too.

It didn't help that Alfred had work today - arguably the most important work-related day of his entire life.

They were launching the Astraeus* today - a joint effort between NASA and the CNSA** that Alfred had been personally overseeing for 4 years. And it was all going to come to fruition today.

He had the worst hangover of his entire life. What a time to be alive.

Alfred hauled his ass out of bed, and dragged his still slightly intoxicated body to the bathroom, hoping that a cold shower would wake him up and cure his headache.

It definitely did not.

The Command Center in Houston was all hustle and bustle, with engineers, physicists, and IT guys scurrying around like ants building a palace for their queen, sweaty and tense. The excitement was nearly palpable, and Alfred could hardly contain his already boisterous self. It was nearly ten minutes to launch, and he hadn't found Yao Wang, who was the somewhat self-proclaimed Chinese ambassador-slash-businessman representing the CNSA.

It was time to make history.

The year was 2063 and Alfred was the only one who remembered who he was.

It happened approximately ten years ago. A gradual thing. Slowly. The people he called brother, friend, lover, forgot. They forgot themselves, what they had been through. Their entire nationship.

They forgot the war, famine, victory, glory, mistakes, and loss; everything that made them nations.

Alfred didn't know what was worse, watching them forget, or being the only one that remembered. Being completely burdened and solitary in his memory. At one point, he refused to believe that it had actually happened, and that he had gone insane or that the Scratch was just a horrible nightmare.

He hoped he would wake up soon.

For now, he did the best he could. Got a job working for NASA with some made up qualifications, nonetheless. In 2057 the government decided to start up NASA again, during a brief scare with the Russians who were also patching up their space program, along with a complete industrial revolution that Eurasia had never seen the likes of before.

Ivan Petrovich Braginski was 23 and didn't even watch the news.

They aged too. Alfred seemed to have new aches and pains every day, even at 20 years of age. It seemed that time was really catching up to him.

The only thing Alfred - not America, he hadn't been America in years -could take solace in was bringing them together again. Even if it meant going through the motions of befriending Japan, or going out drinking with Canada, or flirting with Belarus (whose personality certainly hadn't changed). It made him stubborn, strong, willing to find the source of the problem. But every time he saw them it broke him more than anything.

It all happened so fast.

Alfred had spaced out for a while, and before he knew it they started the countdown. This was it.

"We're at a go status...

T-minus one minute...

Second stage started, ready to embark on a mission for planet earth.

Green status. Flight level secure. Lock in.

Ignition is a go

10

9

8

7

6

5

All system check

4

3

2

1

Chamber pressure holding; we're airborne; congratulations."

Mission control erupted in applause, with men and women shaking and clapping each other on the backs, congratulating each other on a successful takeoff.

It reminded him of Apollo, Gemini, Skylab, Mercury. Of globalization, of tension and fear, of the threat of mutually assured destruction. This time, there was no underlying feeling of anxiety, there was no enemy, in fact, there was unity.

And it was fucking weird. As awful as it was, and he knew how much he shouldn't wish for it, Alfred missed the adrenaline that came with warfare. Having an enemy. It gave him purpose. For so long he was the world's policeman, keeping everyone in line (and pushing his own agenda, that, he wasn't proud of) and now it was gone. But there was nothing he could do about it, and in some sick way, he would only want to go to war with the people he had known all his life.

But he was alone. If the United States went to war, there would be no nation personification to hate. And when treaties and friendships were made, there would be no one to love.

With the launching of the Astraeus, it was time to figure things out. Who or what had done this, and how he could fix it. How to get everyone back to normal. Alfred just wanted his friends and family back.

***Astraeus** - The Greek Titan god of stars and astrology.

****CNSA** - China National Space Administration

**A/N:** Ah, this is the first chapter! I hope you've enjoyed it, please leave comments, questions, and/or criticisms! The idea of a Scratch is based off of Andrew Hussie's Homestuck, I just tweaked it a little bit! :)


	2. Chapter 2

It had been two weeks since the Astraeus and its humble crew had launched into space. It was supposed to be his catalyst. His motivation to figure things out. But reconnecting with the people that he knew, that didn't know Alfred, was challenging to say the least…

It wasn't going to be easy, Alfred knew that for sure. It's not like he could just walk up to Canada at work and mention that they were actually brothers kind of sort of but that they were mostly immortal anthropological representations of countries.

Getting carted off to a psych ward would put a damper on his mission.

He secretly hoped that maybe not everyone forgot, that maybe someone else was just pretending to be a human like him.

But he had no idea where to even start.

Alfred occasionally looked over his soldier to make sure that one of the higher-ups didn't walk by and interrupt him. What he was doing was very precise, and both him and Matthew were hunched over in concentration. You could hear a fly fart.

"Dude, you're so fucking close, just talk to that dude over there-"

"No way man, that's a side mission, I just want to save Elise or whatever her name is."

"I think that's required though."

"Shit."

It was silent for a few more moments until a twitch of Alfred's thumb caused the left analog stick of his controller caused Sonic to jump straight into the goddamn ocean.

"Fuck this game. Fuck Sonic 06." Alfred tossed the controller under his workspace so that it would hopefully be lost forever. Ridiculous.

Matthew rolled his chair away from Alfred to check the array of status reports coming from the Astraeus, which were sent at least once an hour. Seeing that fuel consumption was relatively normal at about a fuckton miles per hour - a slight over exaggeration.

Alfred opened a can of Coke carefully, so as to not spill it on the important controls in front of him.

"You know what would happen if you spilled that Al?" Matthew said, not even glancing at him.

"Yeah, I'd have sticky fingers man." Alfred rolled his eyes. Matthew was always good at getting on his case like that.

"As long as you don't blame for the destruction of millions of dollars worth of equipment, I guess I'm okay with it."

"Are you kidding? You're the first person I'd throw under the bus," Al said with a smirk. "But I'm glad I have your approval to enjoy my drink."

They worked in silence for awhile longer, only broken by intermittent slurping noises coming from Alfred (who drinks soda like that anyways). You could almost hear Matthew rolling his eyes, if such a thing were possible.

"Bro, I had the weirdest dream last night-" Al started.

"Not interested. This game of solitaire is really important."

"You were in it," Alfred said, trying to hide his nervousness. God this was a shitty idea. But it was his only idea which means it must be pretty decent.

There was a pause, with some rapid fire clicking of a mouse coming from Matthew's side of the room.

"Okay, I'm listening." Matthew rolled his chair around so that he was facing Alfred.

"Promise not to judge me?"

"Hell no."

Alfred chose to ignore that. "Okay, well like, I don't remember the specifics exactly, but I know it was really freaky. You were like my twin brother and you lost your memory, and so did a lot of other people? I think that Wang dude - you know the Chinese guy who like represents the CNSA and is really grumbly - was in it too. Anyway, we went on this really sweet adventure-"

"Lemme guess, then we found our true selves and made out?"

"In a way? You got attacked by a polar bear."

"Oh."

"Hey, I never claimed you lived! But yeah it was really strange. All these people from different countries were there and we could all understand each other. And they had all lost their memories too."

"I think you need to stop drinking so much before you go to bed, Dorothy." Matthew laughed, and rolled his chair back to where his computer was.

"Fuck you, we're in Florida, not Kansas."

'Well that accomplished next to nothing,' Alfred thought to himself. He tried to tell himself that maybe he was just testing the waters - who could react negatively to something they thought was completely fictional?

Totally ignoring the fact that fiction and reality were two different entities that people react differently to, of course. For now, maybe it was best for him to worry about the Astraeus. But no, if he was going to figure out what the hell was going on he had to do it now. While he had a reason to be around Matthew Williams - a young nuclear science, physics savant who had appeared out of thin air.

After the Astraeus landed they would go their separate ways.

Yao Wang, a young Chinese business mogul who was expected to go places, would head straight back to his homeland.

And who knew what would become of Ivan Braginski, an up and coming male model in Russia, babyfaced and nearly 6 feet tall.

Not to mention all the European nations, working as journalists, businessmen, or in Sweden's case, a sales rep at IKEA.

Perhaps the Astraeus' voyage into the unknown would bring back some answers. The possibility of aliens was always in the back of his mind, especially on the nights when he stayed up too late drinking Budweiser and watching The Creature From the Black Lagoon. There had to be another way to start solving this mystery - he sure as hell wasn't getting anywhere in Florida, and doubted that being anywhere else would be better.

Maybe he just needed a break from being Nancy Drew. She'd never been to England, had she?

**A/N:** Sorry this took so long! Some personal issues came up not too long after I posted the first chapter, and I also started school in early August, so I haven't really felt like updating. I can't promise that this fic will be updated regularly either, what with school and all. It'll probably only when motivation or inspiration strikes, which god knows how that is. I honestly don't know where exactly I'm going with this so bear with me. Kisses! - Claire


End file.
